Michael Thomas wrote:
I can create a walled garden trivially with smtp just be rejecting
connections from people not on my whitelist. Likewise, anything that
is promiscuous with who it receives from better be prepared for
mail-transmitted diseases (MTD's). That's just the nature of opening
up. So SMTP itself isn't the problem, or more specifically fretting
about SMTP is nipping around the edges of 20 with the 80-20 rule.
I don't think "opening up" is bound to have a unique nature. A
protocol might provide for ways to open up _and_ allow
traceability, responsibility, and accountability. Such features
are implicit in walled gardens. Explicating them requires a more
thorough analysis of the relevant conventions and rules, at an
abstraction level such that its outcome can be globally
accepted. Much of the required "political" work is already
available as privacy recommendations --later than SMTP. It is
possible to tweak SMTP so as to comply with that. While that
would not "eliminate spam", it would permit to manage it
cleanly, properly, and without sacrificing reliability.
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